Rickey’s Sports Bar & Grill – Pembroke Pines, Florida – CLOSED

Years ago I bought a gigantic jug of Rickey’s World Famous Hot Sauce not knowing anything about the restaurant affiliated with it or that’s its owner is considered the greatest classic arcade game player of all time. If you’ve watched the film The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters as many times as I have, you may also develop an unhealthy obsession with whoever is the reigning Donkey Kong champ.

Rickey’s is owned by Billy Mitchell, former, present who knows at this point…Donkey Kong champ and it’s the reason I decided to drive to Rickey’s Sports Bar & Grill.

We started with some “Apps” , so we got Potato Skins (pretty standard stuff topped with Cheese, Bacon, Sour Cream and Scallions) , Loaded Large French Fries topped with Chili, Cheese and Bacon (kinda overkill since this would be our second potato app), Quesadillas (nothing special),Chicken Strips w/fries (I know, we’re out of control) and 10 pieces of their Original Wings. We ordered them “Naked” aka sans breading served with their famous sauce (of which you can choose from Mild, Medium, Hot, Garlic, Jalapeño or Habanero).

The wings were prettay, prettay good but the sauce hit the spot. I would like to comment that my weak-willed friend made us eat Medium when we normally would have gone for the Jalapeño sauce.

Now for the main event, I got the Bacon Double Cheeseburger (2 patties, 1/3 lb. each with Bacon and Cheese served with fries) and it was really nothing out of the ordinary.

The service was really great and when I asked our server about Billy Mitchell he mentioned that he was back in the office. So I purchased a bottle of Rickey’s World Famous Hot Sauce and asked if I could get Billy’s autograph on it. He left with the bottle and came back with this on it: “Remember Always Play To Win, Always – Billy Mitchell“.

Amazing cover of this restaurant. Let me tell you something about the bottle he supposedly signed. He only cook breakfast at the location in Pembroke Pines on Sundays. Otherwise he is not there. He owns the salsa business, however the restaurants are owned by his family and he has a small share of it. So guess who signed your bottle?

So I was in florida with my friends and I said we have to check out billy mitchell the former king of kong. Well the service was awful. The food was cold. And I never met the manager on duty that night. I have been a bartender for a long time and I know a lot about service. It was awful. And I know you may not care but I’ve told my friends and customers to avoid your place when they visit florida. It was AWFUL.

Kyle, did Ricky beat you at pac-man or something? You told your friends from out of state to avoid this restaurant? Was it really that bad for you to go to that much trouble? They were probably like “what the hell are you talking about?”